Urgent rethink on funding needed to address hospital crisis
Reintroducing performance-improvement funding is one measure needed to reverse the worrying trend of declining public hospital performance, according to a new AMA report.
The AMA has released new analysis as part of the Clear the Hospital Logjam campaign that raises the alarm over ever-increasing elective surgery wait times and jammed emergency service departments.
AMA President Professor Steve Robson said the analysis showed public hospital performance had plummeted year-on-year since 2014 when the then-government made changes to the National Hospital Funding Agreement.
The AMA’s report, What happens when we fund hospitals to perform, shows a marked drop in public hospital performance when performance-related funding was removed in 2014 and the National Health Performance Authority was abolished.
“The current review of the National Hospital Funding Agreement represents an opportunity to rethink how our public hospitals are funded, because without change there’s no light at the end of tunnel for patients who are waiting too long for surgery and too long in our emergency departments,” Professor Robson said.
“The impact of previous government decisions relating to performance, together with other pressures on our health system — including an ageing population — are there for all to see in repeated AMA public hospital report cards showing a decline year after year in performance,” he said.
Professor Robson said the AMA had a four-point plan to stem the public hospital crisis, which included reintroducing performance improvement funding; funding for extra beds and staff in hospitals and funding for out-of-hospital care with GPs to keep people out of hospitals.
“We are also calling for the Commonwealth’s share of funding to be increased from 45 per cent to 50 per cent and getting rid of the arbitrary 6.5 per cent activity cap,” he said.
Read What happens when we fund hospitals to perform
Visit the AMA Clear the Hospital Logjam campaign website
